1890 A CHEISTMAS SONNET 139 



game would follow, and our pride was very great 

 when the number of brace was high, for we felt that 

 we had been helping our father to slay the partridges. 

 In fact, we thought that Sandy, the gamekeeper, was 

 a very useless personage when we went out, for did 

 we not mark as well as, or better, than he did ? And 

 surely we could carry the game bags ; they were not 

 very heavy even when they were full to bursting ! 



There was something very beautiful in the respect 

 and reverence which George Romanes felt for children 

 and for child-life, and a sonnet ' To my Children ' 

 expresses these feelings : — 



' Of all the little ones whom I have known 



Ye are so much the fairest in my view — 



So much the sweetest and the dearest few — 

 That not because ye are my very own 

 Do I behold a wonder that is shovm 



Of loveUness diversified in you : 



It is because each nature as it grew 

 Surpassed a world of joy already grown. 



If months bestow such purpose on the years, 

 May not the years work out a greater plan ? 



Vast are the heights which form this ' vale of tears,' 

 And though what lies beyond we may not scan, 



Thence came my httle flock — strayed from their spheres. 

 As lambs of God turned children into man.' 



As has been said, for music Mr. Romanes had an 

 absolute passion. A good concert of chamber or of 

 orchestral music was absolute happiness to him, and 

 he heard a great deal in these years. One or two of 

 his friends were excellent musicians. To one of these 

 he once wrote a sonnet, ' To a Member of the Bach 

 Choir,' ^ and sent it to her in the form of a Christmas 

 card, producing much pleasant mystification and 



1 Miss M. M. Paget. 



